For a few brief moments Saturday night, Alessio Sakara thought he finally could taste victory again.

And Patrick Cote, when he came to, may have wondered if he would be walking out of the octagon for the final time as a UFC fighter. But then everything went sideways.

After a longer-than-normal delay, Cote had his hand raised at UFC 154, the winner by disqualification.

Strikes to the back of Cote’s head are what led to Sakara being disqualified by referee Dan Miragliotta on the final preliminary-card fight at Bell Centre in Montreal. Replays showed that after landing legal strikes with hammer fists, several Sakara punches hit Cote illegally.

It’s the manner by which his client was disqualified and what comes next that manager Lex McMahon is concerned about. And then there’s what he and Sakara feel is the fighter’s sudden reputation that he’d like cleared up, as well.

McMahon was in the stands watching the fight. He watched as Cote (18-8 MMA, 5-8 UFC) rocked Sakara (15-10 MMA, 6-7 UFC) early, then cheered as his client suddenly turned things around and landed several big elbows that dropped the Canadian to the canvas. With Cote hanging on to Sakara’s leg, fairly out of it and trying to defend, Sakara began raining down with the hammer fists that ultimately did him in.

In the time it took McMahon to get from the stands to the arena floor, Sakara had gone from an apparent TKO victory to a DQ loss.

“I knew we were in trouble when I was up in the stands and I was putting my sport coat on to go sit down and talk to my client and congratulate him,” McMahon told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com), “and I’m realizing it’s taking a lot longer to get the decision announced than it normally should. Why is that?”

McMahon has a theory, and it was enough for him on Monday to file an appeal with the Quebec Athletic Commission attempting to get a new ruling on Sakara’s disqualification – and have it overturned, at minimum, from a loss to a no contest.

McMahon has a photo of the scorecard from the event. Where apparently Sakara was initially written in as the winner by TKO has been blacked out with Cote as the new winner by disqualification. That means Miragliotta’s initial ruling was for a TKO before ultimately being changed. And McMahon is of the opinion that there was something rotten in the province of Quebec – and that Sakara paid the price with a loss.

“The first thing that needs to occur is we need to get this turned into, at the bare minimum, a no contest because it was already ruled a TKO for my client,” McMahon said. “And then let’s get the guys together and let them mix it up again, but in neutral territory. I don’t want them fighting in Canada again because he obviously did not get a fair deal. I thought it was a hometown decision. I thought the pressure of 20,000 fans screaming for Cote and booing Sakara during that 5- to 7-minute period while people were reviewing the decision – you’re going to tell me that Dan (Miragliotta) didn’t look at the tape and the commission didn’t look at the tape while they were cheering? Come on.

“I feel like the right decision was overturned in favor of the hometown guy, and that’s a shame. It really is.”

While the fighters were awaiting the decision, screens in the arena alternated between shots of Cote, at which time the Canadian fans cheered wildly for their countryman, and Sakara, at which time the Italian was showered with boos from the more than 17,000 fans at Bell Centre.

McMahon’s point of contention with the disqualification is that Sakara wasn’t given ample warning for the illegal strikes before the fight was stopped. Miragliotta claims he verbally warned Sakara twice. In the FX broadcast of the fight, Miragliotta can be heard once telling Sakara, “Watch the back of the head.” The referee said he also went over the rules with the fighter in the back.

Because the fight wasn’t stopped for Sakara to get an official warning with the two fighters separated, then started up again, McMahon may have a case for Sakara.

But in the court of public opinion, he wants it known that Sakara isn’t dirty.

“I spoke with (Sakara) immediately afterward and told him I’m going to let everyone know, ‘You’re not a cheater, you’re not a dirty fighter, you didn’t do something intentionally to harm Patrick Cote. There was some bad reffing,'” McMahon said. “He’s very upset. Obviously he’s losing economically, which is always tough. But the much bigger issue is he feels he’s been painted as a dirty fighter, and Alessio Sakara is an incredibly honorable fighter and an honorable person.”

McMahon said UFC matchmaker Joe Silva was at least amenable to the possibility of a rematch between the two fighters, who only got 86 seconds against each other with the last portion being a fun slugfest. And at the post-event news conference, UFC President Dana White was in favor of the bout being overturned to a no contest rather than a DQ loss for Sakara – which gave him three straight in the Octagon and gave Cote his first UFC win in six tries, though with an asterisk next to it.

And that’s why McMahon and Sakara would love the rematch.

“I think that’s the equitable thing to do,” McMahon said. “Knowing Patrick as a competitor and his reputation as a person, I’m sure he doesn’t want to win the way he won. I’m sure he would love the opportunity to step back in with Alessio and prove that either he deserves to win, or in Alessio’s case that he deserved to win the fight.”

Until then, all either of them can do is sit and wait for a ruling from the commission and wait for a possible call from Silva for a rematch. Then things can be settled and everyone can move on.

“(Sakara) was very happy both Dana and Joe were amenable to looking at the idea of a rematch,” McMahon said. “He wants there to be a resolution one way or another. If Patrick wins, great. No problem. Alessio’s OK with that. But he’d also like the opportunity to win the fight he thought he had already won. He’s home with his family in Italy, but he’s waiting for me to tell him he’s got the fight again so he can get back in camp again and start preparing.”

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